Saudi citizen Homaidan Al-Turki and his wife arrive at the Arapahoe County courthouse on May 12, 2006. Al-Turki has sued the state of Colorado, Arapahoe County prosecutors and the FBI in federal court claiming they defamed him by falsely saying he sexually assaulted his maid and had ties to a terrorist. (Ed Andrieski, Associated Press file)

Attorney Faisal Salahuddin opines that it is unfair that his client Homaidan Al-Turki is unable to spend his prison time in Saudi Arabia. Indeed, Salahuddin laments that others’ “misconduct … unfairly devastated Al-Turki’s life and reputation.”

Al-Turki’s egregious misconduct [he was convicted of numerous felony counts of sexual contact and a misdemeanor count of falsely imprisoning his maid] damaged a young woman’s life. Where is the outrage for her, the cry for her justice?

Al-Turki deserves to suffer. He can never suffer enough to justify the suffering of the young woman he exploited. For those of us who believe young women are people, too, it is difficult to feel sympathy in this case.

Adoree Blair,Littleton

This letter was published in the March 29 edition.

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Dennis Ryerson’s article was excellent. He makes a strong case for Denver building and maintaining public restrooms not only within our city parks, but also in the urban areas of the city.

We live in the Bible Park area of southeast Denver, where the public bathrooms have been closed for years. Several “temporary” porta-potties have been erected instead, and they have now achieved permanent status by default.

How many times have I been in Washington Park when the bathrooms there were closed? The people of Denver utilize their parks all four seasons of the year, not just in the summer.

The Denver Parks and Recreation Department and those who fund this department need to reassess their priorities. If public parks are there for the common good and health of the community, what does not providing public bathrooms within these parks say about those in charge?

Carolyn Perna,Denver

This letter was published in the March 29 edition.

Unless you live in a bubble of denial, you know the metro area attends to the needs of dogs more than humans. It’s easy to get funding for a dog park, promote allowing dogs in restaurants, raising funds to help abandoned dogs, or pass legislation to name shelter dogs and cats as the state pet. Now try to gain the public’s interest in school funding, school lunch programs or assistance in heath care, and the level of importance wanes. Thus when the issue of providing public restrooms for our human citizens is proposed, it gets one bark on the five-bark rating system. Then again, the issue of sanitation and public urination and defecation has never been an issue of importance with the dog-centric public, as witnessed in any public park, neighborhood lawn, bike path, or with any free-standing pole or bike rack — so why attend to the need for public restrooms?

Stan Hrincevich,Littleton

This letter was published in the March 29 edition.

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Women’s health should not be a partisan issue. We applaud the Colorado legislators who have protected women’s health by voting down bills whose goal, under the guise of “protecting women’s health,” were to undermine safe abortion services.

House Bill 1128 sought to close down abortion provider clinics by imposing unnecessary regulations on providers, which already meet federal and state standards. House Bill 1112 was an unnecessary bill, seeking to ban a service that has long been abandoned. The bill’s true intent was to scare doctors and limit access to services. Finally, House Bill 1162 was another thinly veiled attempt to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship and access to abortion, and promoted racial profiling in our health system.

This letter was merely an attempt to use partisanship to confuse. Colorado voters have rejected attempts to ban abortion three times. The authors of these bills are extremists and should stop trying to interfere in women’s personal and private health decisions.

Cathy Alderman,Denver

The writer is vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado.

This letter was published in the March 29 edition.

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Freshman Congressman Ken Buck has shown considerable backbone by standing up to the rest of the Colorado congressional delegation and questioning the very dubious wisdom of continuing to send our tax dollars down the “rat hole” that is the Veterans Affairs hospital under construction in Aurora. Congressman Buck has my thanks and admiration for his principled stand.

In a March 25 letter to the editor, Dr. Rick Cunningham, who worked at three Veterans Affairs hospitals, labels VA hospitals as horribly inefficient and wasteful. It’s a very scary look at what a single-payer health care system would look like.

Why should we spend another nickel, except to shut down the entire VA health care system?

Chuck Lawson,Greenwood Village

This letter was published in the March 28 edition.

Letter-writer Rick Cunningham is mistaken in his beliefs about both the Veterans Affairs system and single-payer health care.

The VA is not a single-payer system, mainly because not all people who serve in our military are even eligible for VA care. Much of the waiting that Dr. Cunningham decries is due to the efforts made simply to prove eligibility. Furthermore, in its efforts to contain costs, the VA struggles to compete with salaries that are paid to doctors in the private sector, which hampers its efforts to recruit and retain doctors. Wait times happen in the private sector, also; make no mistake. If we truly had a single-payer system in our country, not only would eligibility for care be a moot question, but all of our difficulties related to profit-driven medicine would end.

David Iverson,M.D., Denver

This letter was published in the March 28 edition.

I’ve noted the daily pros and cons of the Aurora VA hospital debacle, as expressed in the letters column. Sure, it’s an obscene construction figure now at $1.73 billion. However, for comparison purposes, the Navy is currently building a nuclear aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, pegged at $12.9 billion and expected to rise. Another carrier is also in the works. At that rate, Congress could build six VA hospitals and have money left over.

President Eisenhower in his 1961 farewell address warned of a military-industrial complex. Do we have our priorities straight? Was Ike spot-on in 1961, and is what he said still relevant today?

Gene Sabatka,Arvada

This letter was published in the March 28 edition.

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Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, one of the sponsors of Senate Bill 177, says its main purpose is to get homeowners and builders to achieve resolution in disputes over construction defects before they falls too deeply into the legal system. (Thinkstock)

In your article concerning Colorado’s proposed construction-defects law, which would take away the right to jury trials in construction-defect cases, state Sen. Jessie Ulibarri said that the constitutional right to jury trials is only guaranteed in criminal cases, and not civil ones. That statement is not accurate.

The Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial in both civil and criminal cases in the U.S. District Courts. And the Colorado Constitution provides in part that “the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate in criminal cases; but a jury in civil cases in all courts, or in criminal cases in courts not of record, may consist of less than twelve persons, as may be prescribed by law.” Although the Colorado Supreme Court has stated that there is no constitutional right to a trial by jury in a civil action, there is a right to a jury trial in a civil case provided in the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure.

The value of the right to trial by jury cannot be overstated. Preserving that right is essential to the fair and equitable administration of justice in our country.

We strongly oppose any legislation the effect of which is to further erode this most important right provided by our judicial system.

Jeffrey M. Villanueva,Denver

The writer is president of the Colorado chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

This letter was published in the March 28 edition.

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House Bill 1259 would allow Colorado residents to collect up to 100 gallons of rainwater from their rooftops in a single-family residence or a multifamily residence with four or fewer units. (Thinkstock)

We have solar power, hot water heat, thermal-pane windows, a compost bin, a garden, a mulching lawn mower, and a swamp cooler instead of air conditioning. We recycle newspaper, cardboard, plastic and cans. My flower gardens support bee and butterfly populations. We do not use any nitrogen fertilizer on our lawn. I also use a water barrel to water my vegetable garden and potted plants.

How many of our elected officials protesting the use of water barrels can say the same?

Jackie Lusso,Broomfield

This letter was published in the March 27 edition.

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In this April 22, 2014, file photo, a protester holds a placard during a rally against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Tokyo. The United States is negotiating the ambitious trade agreement with 11 other Pacific Rim countries that s meant to ease barriers to fast-growing Asia-Pacific markets and streamline customs rules. (Shizuo Kambayashi, Associated Press file)

While Ved Nanda raises many issues regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, another concern many have with the TPP is the level of secrecy around its provisions, as well as who is at the table negotiating this deal. While nearly 600 corporate advisers are helping draft this massive legislation, almost no environmental and labor groups are present.

In addition, the president should be ashamed for asking Congress to grant him Trade Promotion Authority. This undermines our democracy. It impedes congressional authority. Congress would be abdicating its responsibility to the president.

For a trade deal that is this big, with so many non-trade aspects (investor issues, food security, medical patents, Internet security), Congress needs time to look at the TPP and amend it.

We don’t need another trade deal that is a giveaway to large corporations.

Catherine Raveczky,Boulder

This letter was published in the March 27 edition.

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In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it “cruel and unusual punishment” to execute a youth for a murder committed prior to reaching age 18. In 2012, the court ruled that a judge could not constitutionally sentence a youth to life without parole without conducting a detailed sentencing hearing. The court listed factors the judges must consider. Colorado has 50 offenders serving life without parole who must now be re-sentenced. House Bill 1292 creates a responsible way to do this. Those offenders who have made significant life changes are entitled to a thoughtful sentence reconsideration. This bill creates a responsible way to decide these cases in the very courts where they were originally heard. I strongly support its passage.

Jack F. Smith,Centennial

The writer is a retired Colorado District Court judge.

This letter was published in the March 27 edition.

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The Women on 20s movement seeks to replace Andrew Jackson with a woman on the $20 bill. (Thinkstock)

Re: “Put a woman on the $20 bill,” March 23 editorial.

Clearly, putting a woman on U.S. currency is overdue. But I do take exception with changing the $20 bill. Andrew Jackson was the first Democrat to be elected president, and the one who came closest to balancing the federal budget. I would suggest replacing Alexander Hamilton (on the $10 bill), using the criteria that he was not a president of the United States.

Paul Crumby,Loveland

This letter was published in the March 27 edition.

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Erlidawn Roy writes “I am not your mascot” on the face of LacyJay Lefthandbull, 7, from the Apache, Pueblo and Lakota tribes, in support of House Bill 1165 at the state Capitol Monday. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)

As a cranky old white guy, I have little patience with politically correct causes, often dismissing them without consideration. The issue of using native American symbols and caricatures for sports teams has been somewhat more troubling to me, seeing both sides, but not feeling that it warranted the time and expense to change thousands of logos throughout the nation. Then I saw the picture of LacyJay Lefthandbull on your front page. Trump card. Anything that causes that child or her family pain should be addressed. The excuse that these names and pictures have decades of history is insufficient. The nation has centuries of history of calling African-Americans derogatory terms, but that hasn’t justified the continuation of a destructive practice. Pass the bill.

Carl Womble,Westminster

This letter was published in the March 26 edition.

We lived in Tallahassee, Fla., from 1989-91. Our church was host to Florida State University, with the athletic director, the head baseball coach and numerous professors as members. NCAA busybodies, like those in the Colorado House of Representatives, went after FSU’s mascot, the Seminole. In response, the chief of the Seminole nation filed a letter with FSU on the pride they feel as the symbol of the school. The state of Colorado might learn from this.

If political correctness prevails here, can PETA be far behind? After all the Buffalo, Ram and Bear cannot speak for themselves. So maybe one day the Colorado Gold will travel to play the Florida State Sun (until global warming fanatics decide Old Sol is politically incorrect).

JL Penfold,Greeley

This letter was published in the March 26 edition.

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Guidelines: The Post welcomes letters up to 150 words on topics of general interest. Letters must include full name, home address, day and evening phone numbers, and may be edited for length, grammar and accuracy.

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